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tv   America Live  FOX News  June 7, 2012 10:00am-12:00pm PDT

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supposed to go in the trunk. jenna: maybe answers tomorrow. you never know. thank you. jon: good thing the kid didn't want to light a cigarette in the backseat. [laughter] thank you for joining us today. jenna: "america live" starts right now. martha: and we start with this fox news alert, growing outrage on capitol hill over a string of sensitive intelligence leaks that has some believing they may be coming directly from the white house. welcome to "america live," everybody, i'm martha maccallum in for megyn kelly. the effort to get this into a bipartisan issue, you've got democrats and republicans getting together on this because of concern about the leaks, and they will speak out about it this hour. they involve national security information, top secrets splashed across the headlines detailing drone programs, a so-called counterterrorism kill list, the bin laden raid, the details of which some were very unhappy that they leaked out,
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and also some possible cyber attacks against iran. now, let's assume for a second dianne feinstein is part of this group -- let's listen in. >> to gather in that direction. so i'd now like to ask senator chambliss, my distinguished vice chairman, to make some comments. >> well, thanks, chairman feinstein, and let me just say thanks to the leadership of chairman feinstein as well as chairman rogers, ranking member rue pus berger, the four of us have worked very closely on any number of issues. there is no more important issue that we have to work on than this issue. i think it goes without saying that all of us are extremely upset about the fact that a not only have leaks occurred, but there's been just a cascade of leaks coming out of the intelligence community over the last several weeks and month bees. and it's our clear intention to
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put a stop to this in the best way we can. leaks are part of the nature of this town, we understand that. but the fact of the matter is, when you have the kind of leaks that have been coming out in the last few, few weeks, it puts lives in danger, and it infringes upon the ability of the intelligence community to do their job. suffice it to say that in our meeting with general clapper, we knew before we engaged in this morning that he was extremely upset about this issue. he is, as well as every member of the leadership team in the intelligence community, and we have a pledge from them to continue to work with them on all of our -- martha: boy, so what's going on here? you hear about a lack of bipartisan cooperation in washington, right? both sides are together and extremely concerned about this, and one of the big questions is whether or not these leaks may be political and meant to
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burnish the president's foreign policy credentials ahead of the election. the white house has called that suggestion grossly irresponsible, but someone somewhere is sharing this information, and lawmakers want it to stop. joined now by peter brooks, he's a senior fellow for national security affairs. peter, good to have you today. >> good to be with you. martha: you know, we're watching it, it's stunning to me, the high-level cooperation on this and, clearly, congress is not messing around. they want answers as to why this is happening, and they want it stopped. >> it's a big problem, that's why they're working together. it's not a partisan issue at all, a national security issue that effects everyday americans, especially our intelligence be officers and our troops going into harm's way. so very, very important, and t good to see that congress -- it's good to see that congress is working together on this and is going to, hopefully, do something about it, martha. martha: what can they do? the white house is, obviously, denying they have anything to do with this, and they're calling it grossly irresponsible that
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anyone's even suggesting there are political implications here. so what can really happen? how do they stop it? >> well, they can investigate it. there's all sorts of ways of investigating. i'm not a lawyer, but they can look into this, there are people that could go to jail over this or could be fined. so that is certainly a deterrent by catching somebody who was involved in leaking this information. of course, then there's a bigger question, the political question, martha, and that's where folks may be very cautious about going, especially on the president's -- from the president's party. but there's, the issue here is that they can certainly do an investigation depending on what level they want to do it. they want to do it locally within congress or call for a special prosecutor. it's obviously that level of importance. and they know a lot more than we do, so we really should be concerned. martha: just to bring it all forward for people, there's a number of issues here. there's the stuxnet computer virus that leaked out, there was this stunning amount of information that came out after the bin laden raid, and i think robert gates has been one
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of the most vocal on this. >> right. martha: days after he said, you know, i thought we had an agreement. we were all in that room, and we agreed we were not going to discuss the details of that operation because it would hinter other very similar operations that go on all the time. >> sure. martha: you know, it is truly shocking that some of this stuff is getting out, and it runs the gamut in terms of issues for intelligence. >> i mean, it has real-world implications. this isn't the last time we're going to do a command doe raid or use a drone. look what happened to that pakistani doctor. looks like he may go to jail for three decades or more because he was working with us. why would future intelligence assets, spies want to work with us? what about foreign governments wanting to share information with us, or the iranians taking retaliation against us because they believe we were behind the stuxnet virus? a lot of real-world implications that could effect all of us. martha: peter brooks, we're going to have a lot more on it. thank you, peter. ten minutes in now we're going
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to talk to someone who worked for military intelligence be. lieutenant colonel ralph peters believes these are treasonous, and he does not stop there. that's coming up. and credit rating agency fitch moments ago issued a downgrade for the country of spain. spain has almost a 25% unemployment rate, one out of every four people out of a job in spain. they have a crushing debt load, and the news comes the same day that we're getting reports that the white house is getting increasingly concerned about the american fallout from the crisis in europe. chief white house correspondent ed henry is live at the white house. ed, good afternoon to you. what's the white house response to this spain news? >> reporter: well, good to see you, martha. they have not reacted directly to spain, but in recent days we've seen an increase in the president on the phone with chancellor merkle from germany, other leaders in italy, the u.k. trying to find a solution to
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this crisis because it is putting increasing pressure on president obama. we know from last friday's weak u.s. jobs report following other reports about consumer confidence and weak economic growth that he's under pressure with his re-election coming up. and you'll remember back at the g8 at camp david, he was working on this, pressing european leaders to come up with a solution. it has only gotten worse with the news you're mentioning out of spain. greece, obviously, has still been in a lot of trouble. and earlier today on capitol hill the fed chairman, ben bernanke, made clear this is a huge threat to the u.s. economy. >> european policymakers have taken a number of actions to address the crisis, but more will likely be needed to stabilize euro-area banks, calm market fears about sovereign finances, achieve a workable fiscal framework for the euro area and lay the foundations for longer-term economic growth. >> reporter: to give you an idea of how this pressure's going to be increasing just in the next couple of weeks, on june 17th greece is expected to
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go to the polls, the next two today after that president obama, other key european leaders are going to be in mexico for a g20 summit where this will, obviously, be topic a. so pressure really increasing on the president as well as european leaders to try and figure all of this out, martha. martha: boy. ed, thank you very much. ed henry at the white house. we're going to have more on the economy coming up in just a little while. and in the meantime, we are today hearing the outcome of wisconsin's recall election, of course, and it may have convinced a union group in michigan now to drop a recall attempt that they were considering there. milwaukee mayor tom barrett failed to unseat republican governor scott walker in tuesday's election. a similar fight over union rights over in michigan had inspired another group to begin the process of trying to do the same thing. they wanted to unseat governor rick snyder. but now a spokesperson says the results in wisconsin have made it clear to them that could be extremely difficult, not to mention extremely expensive.
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and also in the wake of that wisconsin union loss a new report says that public unions are failing on tough times, and they are losing political power. membership of these unions is way down now after decades of enjoying steady growth. the largest of these public unions, the american federation of state, county and municipal workers, shed some 50,000 members from 2010 to 2011. with unionized workers providing a cornerstone of democrat support, what does this mean? is the political landscape changing for 2012 and beyond? boy, that's a great question to take on this afternoon, and it's been taken on by chris stirewalt, host of "power play" on foxnews.com. hi, chris, how you doing? >> hi, martha, i'm great. martha: you know, this is a really interesting piece that you wrote, and it does deal with this issue. you know, for so long they've been intertwined, the power of the unions and the democratic party sticking up for union rights. to what do you attribute this
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kind of dissolution that we're seeing among their ranks? >> well, this is from "the wall street journal" report, and it's really the first time that we've ever seen this happen, any reduction, because we've seen over 50 years a steady and sometimes sharp increase in the number of these government employee unions. now, two things have happened. one, states have been, states, counties and localities have been reducing the number of workers, that's about a 1% burn rate. so you'd expect to see some reduction. this reduction rate, though s more than 4%, it's approaching 5%. that tells us that these things that were implemented in states -- not just wisconsin, but elsewhere -- that give governments more power when it comes to negotiating with unions, and most importantly eliminates the power of unions to come opel, to force government workers to pay dues has people leaving in droves. martha: and that's a big issue in wisconsin because in the past if you chose not to be part of the union, you still had to pay the dues, and that, of course, filled their coffers.
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if you're not in the union, you shouldn't have to pay the dues, but losing all that money has a big political impact on their power, right? >> well, on their power, but more importantly that's a big impact on democrats. this is the motherload for the democratic party. this is where they get foot soldiers, where they get financial support. if these numbers are down, that is a crisis in the making for democrats. martha: is it a real political shift do you think, chris? are we looking at a situation where unions have sort of outlasted their usefulness, that the reasons they were formed in the first place, to provide worker safety and equality, are just compensated by so many other laws that we have? >> i think there's a lot of truth in that as it relates to the private sector, but in the public sector what happened was people weren't paying attention when times were good. when there was lots of money, people didn't pay as much attention. but now when times are tough, they're watching real close. martha: chris, thanks so much. we'll see you later. so we are still monitoring the news conference in washington,
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and we heard some dramatic new claims just moments ago. colonel ralph peters is here in three minutes, he will discuss the, quote, political clowns as he calls them that are behind the high-profile reports on some of this sensitive intelligence information that is getting out. what he says must be done about this. and forget about asteroids because armageddon could come right beneath your feet, folks. we've got the latest end-of-days prediction that suggests the world could meet its maker in the mouth of a super volcano. that's lovely to think about. and some new concerns about what republicans are calling attempts to intimidate the supreme court in the days leading up to the landmark ruling that we are soon to get on president obama's health care lu. attorney general alberto gonzales joins us to discuss what one group of gop lawmakers is doing about the apart bullying of the nation's highest court. >> the president himself,
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democrat colleagues in the house and the senate, their friends in the media and liberal government pro-health care advocates have stepped up, undignified, not justified attacks on the court. ♪ we were skipping stones and letting go ♪ [ female announcer ] nature valley granola bars, rich dark chocolate, toasted oats. perfect combinations of nature's delicious ingredients, from nature valley. ♪ nature valley granola bars, nature at its most delicious.
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martha: all right, more breaking news on our top story today. a group of republican and democrat lawmakers today got together to express outrage over this recent spate of leaks that involve very sensitive national security information. take a listen to what some of them said just moments ago. listen. >> to have all four of us come forward today and talk about the severity of these leaks, i hope, sends a very clear message about how dangerous this has become. and it's not just an isolated incident, and that's what has brought us together. it seems to be a pattern that is growing worse and more frequent. and the severity of the leaks
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are serious. i had a meeting just yesterday with a series of officers from the agency and other agencies who do important work around the world on very difficult assignments. and to the person -- and these are the line officers, these are the folks who we ask to leave their families and go to dangerous places to do really hard things -- the frustration and their inability to get a handle on this, their inability to keep a secret not just in this town and what it means here, but what it means for their ability to conduct their work overseas is incredibly damaging. this has been as serious a problem as i have seen. martha: retired lieutenant colonel ralph peters worked in military intelligence for much of his 22 years in the army. he's the author of "cain at gettysburg." great to have you here today. >> great to speak with you, martha. martha: you say this could not be more serious.
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why? >> well, this compromises sources and methods, our capabilities, it compromises raw information. um, you know, i really think back to watergate which is our benchmark scandal in washington, and that was a clown show operation. and yet a lot of people went to jail, and deservedly so. this pattern of leaks in the obama administration, of grave national security leaks, is vastly more serious than what happened at watergate. but i'll tell you, unless a number of people go to jail, nothing will change. martha: so you're backing senator mccain's claim that there needs to be an independent prosecutor, that someone needs to be brought in from the outside to find out exactly who leaked this information on the computer virus stuxnet program, the day of the bin laden raid, i should say, all of this? is that what you think is needed? >> yes, absolutely. that's a start. because you can't ask the criminals to investigate themselves. you can't ask the leakers in the
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white house, the extended presidential,tive office of the president -- executive office of the president to investigate themselves. martha: they say they had nothing to do with this, and they claim it's grossly irresponsible to suggest that they did. >> well, of course. the best defense is a good offense. but, look, every leak we've had has been to obama's advantage, trying to portray him as a macho man which is kind of like trying to portraywoodly allen -- woody allen as conan the barbarian. why aren't we hearing leaks about the disastrous effects of the reset with russia, of how we botched things with china, of things that have gone wrong in the middle? no, everything has been to portray obama as a real stud or, this is shameful, to undercut israel. for instance, that leak clearly to me from the national security council level that the israelis were authorized to clandestinely
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use azerbaijanny air bases for a strike in iran, they leaked that to stop israel from doing it. the bottom line is this: national security information isn't a joke. this, the things that have been leaked can kill people. we've seep this pakistani doctor that the white house revealed his part in the bin laden raid. he's going to jail for at least 23 years for helping us. it puts agents in danger, it puts multibillion dollar technological programs at risk. i cannot sufficiently stress the gravity of this situation, and to their credit, i think senator chambliss, senator feinstein are taking a healthy, wise, bipartisan approach. they're not the typical clowns, these people are real legislators, and they're concerned. and, again, bottom line, martha, nobody goes to jail, nothing changes. martha: nothing changes. you know, i find it really interesting that robert gates has been speaking out a lot. he is no longer in the administration. he apparently spoke to david
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sanger who has a new book out on this, and he claims he's, of course, the former defense secretary, that he blasted the national security team in the obama white house for blabbing, or the book claims, i should say, about the raid to kill osama bin laden. shut the blank up is apparently, according to this book, what gates told tom done lin who is now the national security adviser, and basically gates walked into his office according to this report and said in his low-key way, i have a new strategic communications approach to recommend, and then he went on to say shut up, basically. he seems very upset, and he seems to want to get his story out there. >> well, yeah. and bob gates, secretary gates is a it is a turn man. his -- taciturn man. for him to come out this strongly means that -- tells me that the gravity of the damage done is even worse than we know at present. so very much so. martha: all right. ralph peters, thank you very much. very strong words, and we'll see
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where it goes from here. thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. put 'em in jail. martha: so coming up, is the white house also facing new scrutiny over green jobs today? a recent report sheds light on the questions of the numbers. my mother made the best toffee in the world. it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side.
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♪ martha: oh, my gosh, feel the heat. we all agree that's one of the worst songs that we can think of, but there you go, it sets us up for this. as if we didn't have enough to worry about, new concerns of a so-called super volcano that could mean the end of life as we know it on earth, folks. so get ready for this. scientists are fearing that an eruption that would be thousands of time more powerful than the one at mount st. hellens back in
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980 could be heads our way. trace gallagher is in our west coast newsroom where we know there's nothing rumbling underneath the earth ever. >> reporter: well, i don't know about that. you know, they believe these super volcanos, actually, is what killed off the dinosaurs more than 250 million years ago by spewing all this ash into the atmosphere and then blocking the sun for several year, killing the plants and animals and, of course, the dinosaurs being among them. the theory has been these pools of lava fill up beneath the mountains, and then thousands of years later they explode. now researchers at vanderbilt university are looking at crystals that form within the molten lava, and by figuring out how long it takes for these crystals to actually decay, it gives them a kind of geological clock to pinpoint exactly when these volcanos erupted over history. and guess what? volcanos have a much shorter fuse than we thought. not thousands of years, apparently just hundreds of
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years. now, there's nothing brewing right now, but the most closely-watched volcano in the united states is almost right beneath us. it's in the california syria nevada mountains, in fact, it's under my hometown of mammoth lakes, and it exploded some 760,000 years ago, but it started misbehaving again in the '70s, releasing carbon dioxide killing trees, and it's kind of calmed down now. but because of this new research, the scientists are now taking a much closer look at the volcanic activity up there to see if maybe their timing is off and that something much, much bigger could be coming our way. fascinating stuff. martha: see, i told you you should have stayed in new york. it's way too dangerous out there in los angeles, trace. >> reporter: i know. but the weather's so much better. martha: there's that. [laughter] thank you, we'll see you in a little bit. new concerns about what republicans are calling attempts to intimidate the supreme court
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ahead of the landmark decision on the president's health care overhaul. that, of course, we're in june now, so that decision could come at any moment. attorney general alberto gonzales tells us why these apparent shots across the court's bow are such a difficult situation in all of this and what one group of lawmakers plans to do about it. also, there are new suspicions that the white house is playing games with employment numbers. and when bus drivers and janitors are both considered green energy jobs, one can only wonder. >> if you drive a hybrid bus, public transportation, is that a green job? >> according to our definition, yes. >> thank you. what if you're a college professor teaching classes about environmental studies? >> yes. >> what about just any school bus driver? >> yes. >> what about the guy who puts gas in the school bus? >> yes. wake up!
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um, wherever the responsibility falls out, that's where it's going to be, and if it's in the administration, fine. if it's not in the administration, fine. this is not meant to be a political exercise. this is too critical to the future of the intelligence community of the united states. martha: well, this is a system of checks and balances at work right now. congress wants to know who is leaking this information. the fbi is leading the investigation that senator chambliss just mentioned. we're staying on this. ralph peters believes these are treasonous acts, to let this intelligence information go. we're going to get you reaction from the white house as soon as that comes in. it has clearly been singled out in some of these accusations s and they have responded to some extent, and we're waiting for more response. we'll yet that to you as soon as -- we'll get that to you as soon as it comes in. all right, on to this now, top republican lawmakers suggesting that the obama
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administration is manipulating jobs numbers for political advantage. pointing to the white house claims that millions of green jobs have been created with the stimulus money. but just listen to this exchange over what the labor department says qualifies as a green job. this is an exchange between oversight committee chair darrell issa and a department of labor official who probably wishes he stayed home. watch this. >> if you're sweeping the floor in a solar panel production facility s that a green job? >> if you ask me for the number of health care jobs in the united states, i'll give you the employment from the health care industry. that -- >> look, look, mr. galvin, you did not want to come here as a witness, you are not a delighted witness, so let's just go through this. i asked you a question, you know the answer. would you, please, answer it? if you sweep the floor in a solar panel facility, is that a green job? >> yes. >> thank you. if you drive a hybrid bus, public transportation, is that a green job? >> according to our definition,
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yes. >> thank you. what if you're a college professor teaching classes about environmental studies? >> yes. >> what about just any school bus driver? >> yes. >> what about the guy who puts gas in the school bus? >> yes. >> how about employees at a bicycle shop? >> i guess i'm not sure about that. >> the answer is, yes, according to your definition. [laughter] martha: oh, boy. that was uncomfortable, right? here to debate this, simon rosen werg is the president and founder of ndn and a former clinton campaign adviser, and marc thiessen, a former speech writer for president bush. welcome to both of you. marc, let me start with you. you know, this has a lot of people scratching their heads. are you kidding me? if you work in a bike shop? i think most people were picturing solar panels, windmills, that's what most people consider green jobs.
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>> sure. i'm going to actually break some news here, martha. martha: oh, good. >> your job is considered one of the jobs obama is taking credit for -- martha: is that because i'm wearing a green dress? does that count? >> no, it has nothing to do with that. the reality is, they count 10,000 radio and television jobs as part of the green, the total of millions of green jobs that they've created. look, the reality is they are trying to d they're desperate to call anything they can a green job because they've got to justify all of this green energy spending that they've done and prove that it wasn't a complete waste. there's two problems with that. one, most of the jobs they cited from your job and -- i don't think simon or i or you have gotten any green energy grants from obama to do our jobs, so most of these jobs have nothing to do with the green energy investments. and, two, the jobs and investments they have done are an absolute disaster. obama promised on the campaign trail in 2008, he promised to
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create five million job by investing in companies like solyndra. when they did that energy department loan grant program, the washington post looked at it, they spent $39 billion on that program, 39 billion, and according to "the washington post," 3,500 jobs created. that's the obama green energy legacy. martha: you know, we're chuckling and, of course, the exchange is kind of funny, but those numbers aren't funny at all, simon. >> well, the truth is that the clean energy sector in america is growing very rapidly. we've seen a doubling of capacity in the clean energy sector just in the last few years, and in this last year the clean energy sector was $55 billion strong for the first time in the modern era, it was bigger than the entire clean energy sector in china. we've actually leapfrogged ahead of china in terms of investment in clean energy technology here in the united states. and i think what it speaks to, martha, is an example of the overall success that we've had on our energy strategy as a country over the last four years.
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much less of the energy we're using now in the united states is coming from overseas sources, we've seen a huge increase in domestic production, and we've seen a huge increase in the clean energy sector as well. i think one of the reasons republicans are banging on obama about this is because his strategy has worked. and i think that's why they're knocking him in this election. [laughter] martha: you know, i mean, you make valid points, simon, and i think a lot of people would feel good about those clean energy areas in this country. but i think everybody looks at that exchange and thinks it's just hogwash. i guess one of the questions is, why are those jobs categorized as green jobs? why not just do it in an up-front way? i think most people would say those jobs fall into that category whether they're in favor of it or not. so who's deciding, mark, the bls, the labor of statistics board, who makes that decision? >> i think the bls does, and they've just taken anything that could be remotely related to green energy and thrown it in there. and what they've come up with a
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statistic that is absolutely meaningless in terms of quantifying how we're doing and how obama's investments are doing. but again, if you look at that green energy program that they created, they spent $39 billion investing in companies like solyndra. obama promised five million jobs, it's created 3,5435 jobs, that is $1 is million taxpayer -- clash 13 million -- $11 million taxpayer jobs. martha: a job is a job, isn't it? i mean, can't we just talk like grown-ups? isn't a job just a job? does it have to be a green job? >> i think the administration, i think the white house wishes they controlled bls because last week they showed that the unemployment rate was actually increasing. so this is an independent agency. they make these decisions outside the control of the white house. [laughter] and so if there are problems in the way these things are codified, they can be fixed. but i think the overall story is different from what mark is
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saying. weave -- we've seen a huge increase in the energy sector, and even this investment in these innovative technologies that the solyndra program fell underneath which, by the way, solyndra was supported in its early stages by the bush administration -- martha: but then they decided not to support it anymore for some reason. >> right. 33 of the investments that were made under president obama, 31 of those companies are still in bids. it's hard to argue this has been a disaster. there's been a lot of success stories. martha: i hear what you're saying. i think people just want the silliness to be gone, and they want it to make sense in terms of the definition because everybody who works in a bike shop and apparently me as well -- >> martha, let's agree that we should fix this together. marc and i will fix this and come back next week and tell you about it, right? martha: all right. >> 71% of those investments went to obama cronies. martha: thank you very much. even kermit has a green job. good to see you guys today. well, congressional republicans showed up at the department of justice hearing
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today armed with the documents that they say prove that there was a cover-up in how attorney general eric holder handled the fast and furious gun-running sting. we're going to show you how that showdown went today at the top of the hour. you want to stick around for that, trust me. and there are new concerns today about what republicans are calling attempts to intimidate the supreme court ahead of the health care ruling which could come out any day now. in three minutes we're going to talk about it with former attorney general alberto gonzales. coming up. >> attempts to manipulate or to bully the supreme court, especially during deliberations in a particular proceeding, are irresponsible, and they tend to threaten the very fabric of our constitutional republic. a party?
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>> ultimately, i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an
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unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected congress. >> i promised he would be the chief justice for all of us and can that he has a strong institutional sense of the proper role of the judicial branch. acting out based on their perm view on this matter -- personal views on this matter would be the height of conservative judicial activism. martha: well, there are new concern about what some republicans are calling attempts to intimidate the supreme court ahead of their landmark decision on the president's health care law that could come down really anytime now. we were told it would be mid june, and here we are. so three leading senate republicans spoke out on all of this earlier today. here's what they said. >> i hope and i trust that moving forward president obama
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and my colleagues in this body will refrain from attempting to bully the supreme court or seeking to misrepresent the court's important work in fulfilling its constitutional duties. >> the key point is that the court's job is as chief justice roberts said at his confirmation hearing to work as an umpire, calling the balls and strikes as the court sees them. >> i sense, and a lot of my colleagues share this view, that the president himself, democratic colleagues in the house and the senate, their friends in the media and liberal government pro-health care advocates have stepped up undignified, not justified attacks on the court. martha: so there you go. as a backdrop. and we bring in alberto gonzales, former attorney general under the bush administration. sir, welcome. great to have you here today. >> it's good to be with you.
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martha: as you listen to senator leahy and then the republican senators, what do you think of what they're saying on all of this? are they on to something? >> well, you know, i think that judges who have lifetime tenure are not going to be pressured by the comments of someone who may be out of a job in a few months. from my perspective, i think it's more likely they're really speaking to their base. i mean, you've got the president, you've got democrats out there saying that this law is, obviously, constitutional. if, in fact, the court strikes it down, they want to be able to point to someone. it's not the president's fault, it's not their fault, they want to point their fingers at someone, and they want to point fingers at the court. martha: there is this assessment that the supreme court justices have political inclinations and yet, you know, i'm more inclined towards what you're saying, which is to believe that they're beholden to no one, they have that job for the rest of their lives or until they decide to retire, so how much pressure do
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you think that they may feel based -- i mean, because it is an election year, they do realize, of course, the implications of striking it down or of supporting it. >> well, i think the real danger here, you know, is not that the justices are going to be influenced by these kinds of statements, but the real danger is the perception in the general public that perhaps the members of the court can be intimidated, that perhaps the members of the court make their decisions on personal or political considerations. and i think that does great damage to the court as an institution because its sole power comes from adherence to its judgments based upon the integrity of the court. and to the extent that that integrity's called into question, i think that does great damage. and for that reason i think these kinds of statements in advance of the decision are unfortunate and damaging to the court. listen, i i this judges -- i think judges make mistakes, and when they do that, when they
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make a mistake, they could be summit to criticism. criticism is okay, but swimmation, in my -- intimidation, in my judgment, is wrong. martha: that's very interesting, and in some ways it's not surprising when you hear congressmen going at it about judicial activism. we've heard that on both sides over the course of many years, but it sounds as if you might take issue with the president speaking out the way that he did and saying that he was confident that the supreme court would not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that had been passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected congress. would you have wished that maybe he took a higher road on that issue and stayed above it? >> well, i would have at least advised the president to make sure your statements are at least active. it barely passed in the house. secondly, it's not unprecedented. i can cite you numerous examples where congress has passed a law signed by the president which, of course, is unconstitutional.
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so it does happen. in fact, that is the purpose of the supreme court. when congress passes a law that is unconstitutional, they have a duty to say so, and that would not be unprecedented. it's happened before. martha: so, you mean, obviously, i would assume as we talked about earlier on all of this, that the president knows that. so that raises the question, was he trying to sort of put it out there, you know, to sort of -- for the jury, so to speak, that it would be unprecedented, that they shouldn't do that, that that would be activist for them to do that? to overturn? >> >> well, he certainly wouldn't be talking to the court. they know what is, in fact, precedented, what's unprecedented. he, again, i think he's really talking to his base. he's talking -- and i think senate democrats are also talking to their base. listen, from my perspective the president can obviously say anything he wants at any time he wallets. i think it's -- he wants. i think it's better for the president to wait for the decision, see the basis, and
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then if he wants to criticize it, that's the time to do it. martha: former tone general alberto gonzales, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. martha: death threats against scott walker, after this. whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good. between taking insulin and [testing my blood sugar... hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any... beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah... and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra.
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martha: well, there's some outrage after a high school football star gets flagged for excessive celebration at graduation, but he didn't even do anything according to the reports there, it was his family that cheered too loud according to the superintendent. trace gallagher's life in our west -- live in our west coast newsroom with more on this. hey, trace. >> reporter: this is a high school in cincinnati, they had a new policy in place saying, okay, no loud behavior because we want to hear all the kids' names announced at graduation, in fact, they even had to sign an agreement when they bought the tickets. here comes anthony, you know,
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his name's announced and, guess what? he says the family kind of went a little bit overboard. they screamed and cheered, and instead of a diploma, anthony got a note from his principal saying no diploma until after you finish 20 hours of community service. the school says it wasn't how loud the family was, it was how long their, i guess, celebration lasted. here's anthony and his mom. watch. >> i didn't want do nothing wrong but -- i didn't want do nothing wrong but walk across the stage. >> teachers and family members who weren't with us were also cheering for us also. he's well known. i don't understand how he's being punished for something he has no control over. >> reporter: and by the way, mom says she doesn't want to pick a big fight with the school because she's not five more kids to send through there. in south carolina a woman got arrested because she was cheering too loudly, same rule. they said you will be arrested. the cops warned them ahead of
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time, shannon cooper yelled anyway. here's shannon, listen. >> i was just, like, okay. i can't fight the -- i can't, you know, argue with the police. but i'm, like, are you serious? i didn't do any more than the others did, you know, which i feel like no one should have went to jail. >> reporter: right? my favorite, are you kidding me? she paid a $225 fine and spent, like, four hours in jail. her son did get the diploma, by the way. martha: oh, good. that's a little ridiculous. trace, thank you very much. so a former adviser to president bush says we witnessed the secret to mitt romney winning the white house this week. karl rove joins us at the top of the hour to walk us through how that could all play out. and it's not very pretty, folks. the donald versus the beauty queen. she claims the miss usa contest was rigged. we're now learning donald trump
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is calling for a compromise. new developments on that big story straight ahead. and speaking of things getting ugly, attorney general eric holder getting hammered by investigators. they say they can prove there was a cover up. we'll be right back. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.
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martha: anger and accusations on capitol hill. congress thought it had documents that proved a coverup in how attorney general eric holder handled the gun running sting, and that led to a even continue standoff between the attorney general and one of the most powerful men in congress. this angry confrontation that broke out on capitol hill when attorney general eric holder testified to congress on how he handled the failed gun running sting. we told you about the leaked wiretap that suggested top
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justice officials knew more than they admitted. watch this. >> would the gentleman yield? >> of course. >> i appreciate there was hostility between the attorney general and myself. i would hope that the ranking member would understand that in fact most of it was produced by the fact that i have a great many questions and a relatively little period of time in which to get answers and that for a year and a half my committee through subpoena and interrogatories has been attempting to get answers to which this witness says he asserts a privilege. >> with all due respect to chairman issa, he says there is whose tilt between us. i don't feel that. he's asking questions and i'm trying to respond as best i can. i'm pretty calm, i'm okay. martha: this is the 8th time that eric holder has testified on this. we have seen lots of whose tilt
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that has gone back and forth on this. darrell issa says he is frustrated. he claims there are key documents he believes the justice department is aware of, the document he wants to see, they have been withholding them for a long time. there is discussion about holding them in contempt of congress for not precaution those documents. that decision about whether they will be held in contempt may be held over until july. and that is one of the big questions that hangs over all of this. some folks are frustrated those contempt proceedings have not gone forward. william lajeunesse joins us. he has been on this story from the beginning. what did we learn today in all of this, william? >> reporter: not much more than we knew before. this is the 8th time the attorney general has appeared before congress and again republicans came out swinging trying to box the attorney
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general in. claiming number one that he misled congress and he's covering up what his administration knew about "operation fast & furious." >> why did it take so long for to you learn or on thers to tell you. was there a coverup going on? what is the explanation? >> the answer is found your question. no one knew about the tactics at the time of the initial discovery. it wasn't until the tactics were discovered that people started to understand we had a problem here. >> reporter: but republicans tried this line attack before and came up empty. congressman issa claims the top deputies knew the guns were walking to mexico. holder disputed that claim saying his aides only reviewed summaries and not the actual
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applications. >> they are satisfied looking at the summaries are prepared that probable cause does exist. but they do not review these things with an eye towards understanding the full scope of the underlying operation. they only make sure when we go to declaratory is a sufficient basis to say probable cause exists. >> reporter: but for many in congress holder's explanation is not credible. they say the body of evidence and the testimony shows the department knew and approved of operation fast and furious well before the death of agent brian terry and now they are covering it up. >> did you not ever go back to your office and say when you found out about fast and furious, i demand to know who authorized this? are things so fast and loose in your office that somebody can authorize the sale to international criminals of american guns that are bringing about the death of even american
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agents, and nobody has to do that in writing? >> reporter: so that was the substance today's hearing. despite the bombshell regarding the wiretap applications, attorney general holder successfully defended his department today. now the next question becomes is the house and the oversight committee going pursue this contempt citation for documents they say they deserve and show this coverup exists? that will be a political decision that will be up to speaker boehner. many believe republicans should have taken that step months ago. martha: william lajeunesse, thank you. the speaker of the house reacting to the testimony on "operation fast & furious." here is what john boehner said when asked if congress could reach a deal with the department of justice that would allow the attorney general to avoid that
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contempt resolution. >> there are no conversations going on. the department has not responded to the leadership letter that went down there several weeks ago. the department of justice has not responded to the subpoena issued by chairman issa. and we are going to do everything we can to hold the department of justice accountable for what did or did not happen with regard to fast and furious. martha: the suggestion they are stonewalling, they are not getting back to them on any of this. boehner adds all the options are still on the table for holding the justice department accountable for fast and furious. julian epstein and a jay sekulow will join us next. a shocking allegation of
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violence in syria. unarmed u.n. monitors came under fire today. observers were shot at when they were trying to reach the scene of yet another massacre of civilians. many of the victims said to be women and children. ban ki-moon says every day brings more atrocities in syria and the assad regime has lost all legitimacy because of this crackdown. the uprising has killed more than 10,000 people and the i.n. says a million people inside syria are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. in the last two months alone the amount of syrian refugees has doubled. it is a desperate situation. connor spowl joins us now from our middle east bureau. >> reporter: syrian opposition groups say 78 people were killed
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in hama province in the last 24 hours. the u.s. and it national community condemned this massacre. secretary of state hillary clinton said the united states is disgusted with what's happening in syria. they say pro assad militiamen went into the town and killed as many as 100. we have not been able to confirm exactly what happened. the u.n. is trying to send observers into that town. ban ki-moon said they came under fire. there are reports they were stopped by syrian troops and armed civilians preventing the u.n. observers from getting to
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the town. the government says they had nothing to do with this massacre. they blamed it on armed terrorists. they said they had nothing to do with it. this comes as the u.n. is handling new plans to try to deal with the violence in syria. kofi annan is meeting with the general assembly and the security council to come up with some new plan to stop the bloodshed and violence. according to the u.n. some 10,000 people have died in this uprising in syria. kofi annan is trying to bring together the united states, britain, france, turkey, iran, china and russia into a contact group to try to find a peaceful political solution. however, the violence continues day in and day out in syria and that peaceful solution doesn't seem to be close to being agreed upon. martha: conor powell reporting.
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is the biggest sports lawsuit we have ever seen. 2,000 former football players for the nfl have accused nfl of hiding information that links head injuries to long-term brain damage. >> reporter: these 2,000 football players filed 81 separate lawsuits. now they have been consolidated into one master complaints that says the nfl concealed information linking football-related head injuries to permanent brain problems. it goes on to say the was exacerbated by the risk by promoting the game's violence. this also goes on to say that permanent brain problems have been persistent in the nfl for years. the lawsuit is aimed to holding the nfl responsible for monitoring and treatment of veteran players.
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it comes in the wake of three suicides of high-profile players. all three men shot themselves. the nfl issued a response saying this lawsuit stands in contrast to the league's many actions to better protect players and advance the signs and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions. the league has new rules to protect players from head-to-head hits. but many say the nfl has glamorized those hits for years. >> on the one end you want to discipline the players for the vicious hits and protect the player safety. but the fans love this stuff. and have grown to love this stuff as we have been watching for years. >> reporter: part of that lawsuit, doctors say if you put two players running 20 miles an hour head-to-head, they create
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1,800 pounds of force. before they get to the nfl these guys have played, 10-12 years of football. i played through college, i got two con dutions. i had buddies who had five or six before they ever went on. this could change football all the way back to pop warner. trace, thank you very much. so they are calling this one the beauty queen versus the billionaire. donald trump is threatening to sue the former miss pennsylvania after she claims the donald's pageant was rigged. we'll show why the accusations get worse from there. we have karl rove coming up as well. he says the vote in wisconsin showed us the secret to winning the 2012 election. up next he will tell us what it is. and what he believes it would take for governor romney to win the white house in november.
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martha: a fox news alert just breaking. there are new reports that show governor mitt romney and the republican party raised more money than president obama did in may. we are told that the romney campaign and the rnc brought in $76.8 million last month. mr. obama and the dnc raised $60 million in that time. the obama campaign is not saying how much cash it has on hand to♪ this election but stories have circulated they are going through cash very quickly at the obama campaign. but romney and the republicans are reported a combined $107 million. soy some stiff competition in
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the dollar raising part of the business. plus we are hearing a new theory on the secret to winning the 2012 election from karl rove. he says the answer may lie on what we saw tuesday night in wisconsin. governor scott walker's victory may tell us a lot. he won by a wider margin than his first victory in 2010. his campaign is focused on an intense ground game. karl rove is a form or advisor and deputy chief of staff to president bush. >> and i have nothing to do with the miss america contest. martha: we have miss america stories. then speak of miss america we have carl rover. >> that's a non-he question you are. martha: it tells us what the
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ground game this this race? >> this was a big turnout election. the democrats won the state by 5,500 votes in 2000. 11 thundershowers in 2004. 2008, it was won by president obama by 14,000 votes. wisconsin of this year looks like the wisconsin of 2000, 2004. march report other side spent a lot of money as well. there is so much said about scott walker. there was nothing they could do. if you look at the margin he won by, people pulled the lever for scott walker. those are surprising numbers. when you look at the union vote and the obama supporter vote in wisconsin. how do republicans kind of seize on that ground game and what are democrats need to work on? >> there are two lessons out of this experience.
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two for the democrats. they said thee we have the most massive ground game in the history of politics. debbie wasserman-shultz said this will be a dry run. and yet they lost. there are one of two answers. either what they did didn't work, which i think it did work. they got 154,000 more votes for mayor barrett than he got two years ago. but the other answer is, maybe it was offset by what the republicans did. governor bob macdonald and the chairman of the rnc. and the gop leadership was focused on the get out the vote for sidewalker. and it offset what barack obama was able to achieve. his margin winded. with all this negative activity,
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with all the money spent against him the last year and a half he got a bigger percentage of the vote and more votes than got last time around. including 38% of everybody in a union household. if you were a non-union member living in a union household, your wife was a member of the teachers union and you weren't, or your husband was a member of the uaw and you weren't, walker got 48% of those people. martha: that's a stunning number. you claim the turnout in terms of registering voters in the swing states that republicans seem to be doing bet there are that ground game as well. >> i have been watching this over the course of the last five, six months. if team obama was as good as they claim they are, would you think they would be winning the registration war. they would be out there registering voters. 8 battleground states register voters by political party. in every one of those 8 states the democrats are being bested
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in the region station war. in a couple states the democrats have rekind and the republicans have risen. in a couple states to both parties have gone up. martha: the obama campaign is going to want to turn this thing around. >> can they? i have been watching these numbers for five months. comparing to what happened each month in registration compared to where we were at the end of the 2010 election, this is not getting better for the democrats. you would think that chicago were monitoring these numbers they would turn it around, but they haven't. martha: karl, thank you, always good to see you. we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back with more on "america live." stay with us. welcome to hotels.com.
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martha: several police agencies plus the department of justice are investigating series of death threats that have been made against governor scott walker after the recall in wisconsin. some of the threats directly targeting walker's family. political tensions in wisconsin came to a head after walker made history as the first u.s. governor to survive a recall effort, and that effort was driven by the state's unions. and the battle of the beauty queen versus the billionaire. donald trump threatening to sue miss pennsylvania after she turned in her tiara after claiming the pageant was fixed.
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trace gallagher is joining us with the story. >> reporter: first the word was she resigned her crown was a transgender contestant was allowed to be in the peajts and she was morally opposed to that. but then she claimed the pageant was rigged. she said the top five were known before the pageant even started. she says in my heart i believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity. none of which are part of this pageant system any longer. donald trump owns the miss u.s.a. pageant. he came out fighting, defending the integrity of his pageant. today he was on "fox and friends." >> it's loser's remorse. this is a woman they are having
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some difficulty with. it's interesting because we have about -- i don't know, 10 judges, all of the judges are certified by ernst and young. >> reporter: even her manager thinks maybe she is suffering a little bit of loser's remorse and didn't know the show was rigged. but it takes a lot to give up your crown. she worked awfully hard for this. she worked a long time to become miss pennsylvania. martha: trace, thank you. we have some brand-new numbers on the jobs front today. what they mean for the future of our economy plus how to get americans back to work. our power panel weighs in. a remarkable discovery and the assassination of abraham lincoln. the dramatic first-hand account of the doctor in ford's theater
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that night. what he saw and how he tried to save the president's life. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪ wer surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. so i wasn't playing much of a role in my own life, but with advaii' i'm breathing better so now i can take the lead on a science adventure. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator,
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martha: we are look at the jobs numbers that came out this morning raising fears that our economy as seriously stalled. the number for the week was down it was in line with
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expectations. let's break count numbers. new weekly benefit claims falling below the 370,000 mark 8 times in the last three years. 5.9 million americans are receive unemployment benefits and 12.7 million are unemployed or under employed. is there any real solution here is the question we are struggling with. melissa francis and matt mccall good to have you here. we keep wishing things will get
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better. that is the scariest number in awful this. so many people have given up. >> 24 million people are unemployed or under employed. the country is choke on its own vomit. martha: wow! it's not going to end well. >> 8.2% is more consistent with a recession than recovery. you need a growth of 5% to bring the unemployment rate down. >> i saw greece has a 21% unemployment rate. it's like banging your head against the wall. it feels so good when you stop. we are far from that. >> greece is about to default on their loans. the big numbers are bad. the 23 million.
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but what i don't like is the trend is going the same way. we came in with low expectations. some people say that good, we beat expectations. the market bounced on that. the 4-week average, that continues to get worse. we need to get down to 350,000 which is not good to some what be acceptable. to me heading into the summer right now consumers have slowing down a bit. this number is going to increase. and we see upward of 400,000. martha: vice president biden said this is the summer of recovery. ben bernanke was a focus of a lot of the action this morning in terms of the financial markets. the market was up strongly yesterday in anticipation that he might say something to soothe the market. it seems like he tried to be
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extremely careful. >> he said in in there that we saw unemployment ticking down and things were getting better. more people were finding jobs because employers worked so hard to not hire people for so long. so we had that relief of hiring people and now that's gone. business and the economy needs to pick up speed. the low-hanging fruit, the easy pickings are gone and now wore lagging again. that's what it feels like. martha: companies have learned to function more efficiently. they don't over order stuff. they are better buyers and more efficient which in the long run ought to make these companies stronger. >> we look at financial firms. they are still letting people go. we'll see more layoffs, not to the extent we have seen
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previously. by you will see more companies not hiring. >> i think we'll see -- ibm, even the big companies say we can run just as efficient with less people. why bring on more employees. the president is trying to get out there and give tax breaks. the problem is as a company owner, to hire somebody, the on time i hire somebody is if i increased the demands for my goods and services. so we need to see increase from consumer spending. we have to get out there and shop. the more we shop, the more demand for goods and services. >> when you talk to ceos, they definitely say that. we had a ceo from price waterhouse. he says ceos are confident in their own business but they are not confident in the larger
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economy other customers. i'm fine, i have parred down my costs but i'm not going to start anything new. >> i think they are looking for some understanding of what's going to happen in 2012 as well. i heard from a lot of people that that's a factor for them. what about the spain bubble? a downgrade for spain. the word is that the white house is very concerned now which makes you wonder -- they should have been concerned about it all along. >> maybe they were, who knows. but it's definitely the ripple effect. the big worry about greece was the contagion. if europe falls apart that's what we do not need in our recovery, it's already so fragile. you see what would happen to our bank, our businesses. we have so many international businesses we can't afford something like that right now. it's a huge concern for the white house. it what's they don't need coming into the election.
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martha: they may be freaking with what's going on in europe, but is there anything they dock at this point? a scoasy has been vote -- sarkozy has been vote out of office. he put the retirement age up to 62 and hollande put it back to 60 today. >> the problem is i don't think europe can do anything right now. no spending more money and letting the banks go by the wayside. but europe continues to bail out the banks and we bail out spain. the big problem i have with that, if we bail out spain, who is next? portugal? italy? greece -- martha: what about the stimulus, not a stimulus package from congress which we talked about in the past so much and have
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seen varying degrees of success. but for quantitative easing. >> it's almost guaranteed. it will be a collaboration. china's bank last night lowered interest rates. we'll see ecb do something and the feds do something. that will save the economy and the market in the short term. long term it's not good. >> interest rates can't get any lower. anybody who is going refinance has already don't. mortgages are as low as they are going to get. martha: take the money and invest it. >> this is depressing. i'm depressed. >> the stock market rallied 20%, 30%. if this happens in the next couple weeks, we'll have an artificial rally, but it will
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make you feel good about yourself. you feel good because your 4. >> -- because your 401k is going higher. martha: for roughly a year and a half we have been trying to get answers on this failed gun-running sting that put guns in the hands of drug cartels and they were later found at the murder of this border agent brian terry. there is a fierce fight that broke out over accusations of a coverup. up next, is congress about to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt? >> who is responsible, mr. attorney general. uconn plated a bunch of things here. the responsibility -- >> you delivered so little. >> order. >> will he be allowed to answer the question? >> i would appreciate no more interruptions so the a.g. can answer the question.
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martha: a feisty exchange on capitol hill between attorney general eric holder and darrell issa. they are trying to prove what they charge is a coverup in the gun running sting known as "operation fast & furious." >> have you and your attorneys produced internally the materials responsive to the subpoenas? >> we believe that we have responded to the seen a. >> mr. attorney general, you are not a good witness. a good witness answers the question asked. have you and your attorneys produced internally the terms? have you taken the time to look up our subpoena and find out what you have responded to or
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you invented a privilege that doesn't exist? internally. have you poodle all that information. >> we looked at 240 cuss toldons and accesses 140,000 documents and produced 7,600. >> 140,000 documents. how many are responsive that you are withholding at this time. >> we produced 7,600. >> i don't want to hear about the 7,600. martha: jay sekulow, the chief counsel for the american center for law and justice. gentlemen, fast and furious is obviously the hot topic on capitol hill. julian, clearly the question darrell issa was proposing is did your office go through our request in our subpoena and sort of line by line address exactly
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what we are asking for, and do you have those documents and you decided not to turn them over or do you not have those documents, what's going on with our specific request was his question. >> i think the attorney general once he was done being badgered and rudely treated. this justice department provided nearly 8,000 pangs of documents. they provided a dozen witnesses. the attorney general appeared at 8 hearings. they have been -- there is questions about information that hasn't been provide. those questions relate to law enforcement. the most important part of this story is all of the word on capitol hill is is a has lost this battle. the republican leadership pulled their support for any contempt the citation.
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this has been a fishing expedition from the get-go and the latest stunt with the wiretap information is kind of backfired. martha: that may be the case, because what we are hearing is that john boehner did not sort of address the issue of when and if there will be contempt charges filed. i see you shake your head, jay. but that the big issue it does feel like the house later ship does not want to go there. >> the "new york times" ran a report in yesterday's maybe saying the speaker had been in dialogue with the department of justice to resolve this matter. that was now denied by the speaker. so take that report from the "new york times," forget it. the question that exists and it's the question that existed from the outset, why is there not sat coherent, logical explanation for the malfeasance of the department of justice in
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this case. forget wiretap issues, it shows clear knowledge of what was going on here. but the lack of response is what i completely disagreer with you -- the lack of response from the department of justice, particularly the attorney general directly to the questions asked. he could have said we have reviewed those documents. we decided they are privileged. and legal justification. but he doesn't. he acts as if he's not repaired. martha: anybody who feels like they are lost in the shuffle of all these thousands off document. the bottom line is what did the department of justice know at the highest level about the "operation fast & furious" issue fan when brian terry was found dead and one of these guns that least was at the scene from this operation, what happened at the department of justice? was there outcry? were they upset? did they go to the white house? did they say we have a problem on our hands?
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>> i think that's right. let me remind your viewers that gun walking was a practice that was started under the bush administration. the republicans -- >> julian i checked into that today. megyn: julian you finish your sentence. jay, hold on. >> it's not correct. >> it's a matter of record that gun walking started under the bush administration. >> it's a matter of record that the attorney general not only stopped the gun walking practice. he was the first person to call for an investigation into the and he did remove officials including the u.s. attorney in phoenix. and the head of the alcohol, tobacco and firearms. this has been a fishing expedition from day one. this has been a fishing expedition trying to show the
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attorney general has specific knowledge about gun walking. they never produced anything like that. i have been the staff director on these committees. unless you have a smoking gun you will never prosecute a contempt citation. martha: hold on, gentlemen. >> the southern general submitted evidence and five months later retracts that and said we were incorrect in what we submitted. >> it's old news and on a secondary issue. there was never any information the attorney general had any knowledge of that. martha: i think a lot of people would contend that. whether he had knowledge of it is one of the biggest questions here. >> how could you not have knowledge of it? >> this is the problem with the whole thing. the attorney general has created his own problem. he created his own problem by not doing what julian said, just
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and the question. he's not answering the questions. either he don't know the answer or the answers are trouble together department of justice. martha: julian and jay, thank you. everybody at home, we'll be right back. structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. [ music plays, record skips ] hi, i'm new ensure clear. clear, huh? my nutritional standards are high. i'm not juice or fancy water, i'm different. i've got nine grams of protein. twist my lid. that's three times more than me! twenty-one vitamins and minerals and zero fat! hmmm. you'll bring a lot to the party.
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martha: new debris from that killer tsunami hat ravaged japan more than a year ago. a huge dock that was ripped away by the pounding waves floated 5,000 miles to land on a beach in oregon. some organisms have come along for the ride. they will scrape all living
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things off of this dock and bury them in the sand. we are getting a closer look at a newly discovered document of an eyewitness to lincoln's assassination. it's call the first draft an american tragedy. hey, trace. >> reporter: i know you love history. when this young doctor wrote this just hours after abraham lincoln was assassinated. he was 23 years old. 6 weeks into his medical practice when he wrote this. he says that the report was actually sent to the surgeon general back in 1865. the doctor was 40 feet away from lyndon -- from lincoln when he saw john wilkes booth jump on stage with aing todayer in his hand. he thought the president had
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been stabbed. he said he made his way through the crowd and mrs. lincoln begged him to save her husband. he says i soon passed my fingers over a large firm clot of blood. i passed the little finker of my left hand through the perfectly smooth opening made by the ball, the ball being the bullet. physicians argue over whether lincoln might have been saved. they say if you hadn't probed that wound, did that actually help cause his death. four researchers have been looking through these documents at national archives and they finally came across this. in the surgeon general's personal correspondence back in 1865. the doctor we are talking about never wrote or spoke about this for an additional 44 years before he finally talked about it as a seminar. fascinating stuff.
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martha: that's incredible. we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.
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